Our reception was held at Chartridge, which is an early 1900's country house set in 25 acres of magnificent Chilterns countryside.

We chose this venue because, being a November Wedding, we wanted to be sure that if it rained we would have some pleasant interior surroundings for photographs. Since the weather was so good to us that wasn't necessary and the photographs were taken at the church.

Guests were greeted with a choice of drinks in the Garden Room. On offer were Champagne, Kir Royale (champagne with a dash of Creme de Cassis), Bucks Fizz (champagne and orange juice) and Orange Juice (Bucks Fizz, without the fizz). For anyone who didn't fancy one of those, an open bar was available.

We then had a traditional receiving line so that members of the wedding party could personally greet everyone as they entered the Lodge for the Wedding Breakfast.

The florists had excelled themselves and the tables were beautifully decorated to match the bride and bridesmaids' bouquets of red and cream roses. Also on the tables were favour boxes tied with cream ribbons and decorated with paper rosebuds that had been painstakingly prepared by Mike's sister-in-law Nikki, no doubt with help from Matthew and Hannah. The boxes contained two heart-shaped Charbonnel et Walker Champagne Truffles, we hope that the guests could bring themselves to destroy the pretty boxes in order to enjoy the contents!

Once all the guests were seated and the bride and goom had entered, grace was said by Rev. Nicholls and we all sat down to eat.

The chefs at Chartridge did a fantastic job. The food was wonderful and we were delighted that many guests commented on how much they had enjoyed the meal.

The meal was followed by the cutting of the cake. Our wedding cake was made by Mike's mum, Sylvia, and was absolutely beautiful. The four tier cake was decorated with handmade sugar roses and ivy leaves, it was a shame to have to cut it at all but it was just as delicious as it was beautiful.

Once the cake had been cut it was time for the speeches. The Father of the Bride, the Groom and the Best Man duly took their turns to entertain the guests and succeeded in extracting the requisite groans, laughs and aahhhs, with their comments. Linda was grateful that her father, Syd, didn't embarrass her too badly and Mike was equally relieved that Tony didn't reveal any misdeads to which he hadn't already confessed.

The formal part of the procedings over the wedding party and guests moved to the lounge to enjoy coffee, wedding cake and a chance to relax and chat. The bar remained open and guests were able to make use of the pool table.

Finally we felt it was time to make our departure, so after slipping away to change we reappeared with bouquets of flowers which we presented to our Mothers before taking our leave under a final shower of confetti.

We had a wonderful wedding day, it couldn't have gone more smoothly and every moment was a joy. We just wish we could do it all again so we could remember it better, it seemed to go so fast. At least we had the Honeymoon to look forward to, but that's another story......